The Forest of Silenced Cries
by Lovegood Nargles
Summary: Emma Swan's home life is anything but perfect. On a particularly bad day she seeks refuge in the forest. Her forest. Henry Mills has a picture perfect life. Good home, good grades, good friends. What happens when their paths cross in the most unlikely of ways? Will he be able to save the saviour or will it be too late? (sorry for the summary story should be much better!) SwanQueen!
1. Chapter 1

The smell of smoke breaks her from her reverie. She looks down and sees the charred remains of tonights dinner smoking on the stove.

"Shit." She whispers under her breath. She grabs the pan's iron handle and yelps, bringing back her hand and dropping the food onto the floor with a loud thud. She bends down and quickly tries to scrape the food back into the pan while nurturing her burnt hand. The sound of clicking heels alerts her that someone heard her and is coming. The footsteps stop and a large shadow looms over her head.

She looks up and meets her hateful glare. A vein is popping out on her forehead and her fists are shaking with rage.

"Greg!" she calls. "The mutt ruined dinner! Again!" Emma knows that once Greg comes she's doomed. Heavy footsteps approach and stop next to his wife. He looks at his wife. "Thank you Tamara." Turning his attention towards the mess on the floor he angrily spits out "You ruined dinner." He looks down with malevolent glee at the girl cowering on the floor.

"Stand up!" Greg yells. She does as told.

He raises his arm. A slap, which resounds throughout the kitchen, sends her to the ground. He lifts his foot and crashes it down on her arm. He yells at her to get out, that she's nothing but a worthless _mutt_.

She stands and runs out the back door as fast as she can. She takes off into the forest behind her house, only slowing down when the house is no longer in view. She walks halfway into the forest before she finds her tent. Soon after she first moved she set up a tent in case she ever needed to get away, and in moments like this she's never been more grateful that she did.

Once inside her tent she begins to clean her burnt hand with a first-aid kit she 'borrowed'. A few minutes later she hears the soft crunching of leaves from a few feet away. She pokes her head out of the tent and looks around seeing only trees.

"Hello?" she asks, her voice wavering. "Is someone there?" She's worried that Greg has found where she runs off to.

"Hello?" a voice calls to her right. She steps out of the tent to see who is lurking in her woods. She stops short when she sees a young boy who looks to be her age staring at her with wonder.

"What do you want?" she bitterly asks. He visibly tenses and she inwardly smirks, proud that she can make someone fear her.

"I… I'm sorry if I disturbed you. I was just walking around the woods and came across your tent. I… I thought maybe a camper left it here. Please I mean no harm." he stammers out quickly. He extends his hand towards her, and she flinches. He pulls back his hand, a look of confusion on his face.

"My names Henry. Henry Mills." he states.

"Emma," she quietly says. "Swan." They both stand there in an uncomfortable silence for a moment, Henry scratching the back of his head. Finally, he breaks the silence.

"So what are you doing out here in a tent?"

She doesn't know why, but something tells her that she can trust him, she tells the truth. "Home isn't too great at the moment." he nods as if in understanding. The silence is broken by the sound of a text notification on his phone. He types out a reply and tells her that he has to go home for dinner. He must notice her look crestfallen at the thought of being alone again because he invites her to join them. She politely declines telling him that she is fine where she is and doesn't need his pity. He assures her that it isn't out of pity, he just wants to help her, and asks again.

Annoyed with his persistence Emma bitterly spits out "Just leave me alone and run on home to your _mommy_." Henry reluctantly leaves and once he's out of sight she returns to her tent.

Later that night, while trying to pass time, she hears a noise from the bushes. Before she can react a voice calls out.

"It's just me, Henry." Emma relaxes and steps outside the tent. Standing there with a goofy smile on his face, holding a large food container, is Henry.

"I thought I told you to leave me alone." she bitterly states.

"I figured you might be hungry so I brought you some leftovers from dinner." She hesitates before reaching out and grabbing the container from him.

He scratches the back of his head, a habit she's noticed, and begins to turn to leave.

"Wait." Emma calls out, freezing him in place. "Thank you." she quietly says.

"Your welcome." he smiles then continues walking home. She turns around and recedes into her tent, now with a meal. She opens up the container and sees two slices of pepperoni pizza, and a small piece of garlic bread. She deeply inhales the delicious smells and quickly stuffs herself with the food. Once she has eaten every last crumb she places the container by the end of her sleeping bag. As it is getting late outside, Emma decides to call it a night and try to sleep. She moves everything to the edges of the tent and unzips her sleeping bag, crawling between the flannel sheets. She turns off the lantern by her head and allows the far cries from wolves and the occasional hoot of an owl to lull her into sleep.

Emma wakes abruptly to a rustling outside her tent. She turns on her lantern and sees a large shadow by the tent opening. She freezes. Slowly, the zipper is undone and a large hand grabs the wall of the tent.

"This is a nice setup you got here." the voice slurs, telling her it is worse than she thought. Greg found her. "Why hello beautiful." a wicked grin comes across his face as it emerges through the tent flap. Emma scurries towards the back of the tent, putting as much space between Greg and herself as possible.

"Awe isn't that just the sweetest, eh? Did the big, bad man scare the _little girl?_." he taunts.

"What the hell are you doing here?" Emma spits out, glaring at him.

"Well I had a wonderful night thank you for asking." he says sarcastically. She continues to glare hoping that the will get the message and leave. He ignores her and looks around the tent, inspecting objects as he looks. He picks up the first-aid kit and turns in over in his hand. Written on the back is 'G.M.' _Greg Mendell._ His head snaps up, his brown eyes filled with rage.

"Greg Mendell?" he says through clenched teeth. "Greg. Mendell!" he yells. Emma tries to take a step back and falls into the tent wall.

"You stole this from me!" Greg yells. "What else have you been stealing. Huh?" he begins picking up anything he can reach. "Did you take this too? And this? How about this?" With each words he inches closer to her, until she can smell the booze on his breath.

"Answer me girl!" he screams.

"I…I never-" she gets cut off by a hand smacking her across her cheek.

"How _dare_ you." Greg punches her in the stomach, making her hunch over in pain. He knocks her to the ground and stomps on her leg with his boot. Emma cries out in agony. Another stomp to her leg, a crack sounding throughout the tent. Tears threaten to escape with each kick to her leg, but she will _not_ cry. That would be showing weakness, and she is anything but weak.

Once Greg seems satisfied with the damage, he bends over and begins punching her in the stomach.

"I hope this teaches you to never steal from me again. _Mutt._ " he spits out. With one final blow square in her jaw, Greg stands up and stumbles out of the tent. Emma tries to stand up but winces in pain and collapses. She tentatively raises her hand to her lip and pulls it back, blood coating her fingertips, before the blackness consumes her.


	2. Chapter 2

A beeping noise is the first thing she notices. Emma tries to open her eyes but her eyelids are heavy. She tries to move her legs and finds that one is stuck in something above the bed. _Bed…_ _When did I go to a bed?_ She thinks.

She moves her arms and feels something attached to her right arm. She tries to open her eyes again and succeeds but quickly closes them due to the brightness. She tries again, this time slowly, and manages to open her eyes completely. Emma looks around, taking in the white sterile room with machines beside her. _So I'm in a hospital,_ she thinks. _How in the hell did I get here?_

The sound of a door opening snaps her into reality, and she looks towards it to see Henry walking in with a doctor. The doctor looks to be in his mid-to-late thirties. He seems strange with short, messy, bleach-blonde hair, caring blue eyes, and a fit, pale body.

"Good morning Emma. It's good to see you awake. I'm Dr. Edward Whale." His voice is very warm and friendly, comforting Emma notes.

"How did I get here Doctor?" Emma asks as Henry moves to carefully sit at the edge of the hospital bed.

"I found you." Henry says. Emma's head whips towards where he is sitting, her eyes widening.

"You… found me?" she asks uncertainly.

"Yeah. I went back in the morning to bring you breakfast and to see how you were, but it didn't seem like you were there so I opened your tent and saw you bleeding on the ground, unconscious. I immediately called an ambulance and carried you to the edge of the forest while waiting." He tells her.

Emma was shocked to say the least. Never has she ever had someone who has cared about her enough to see how she was feeling.

"Thank you." Emma says, her smile growing wide. The room goes quite for a moment before Dr. Whale speaks.

"Well I'm sure you're interested in knowing the extent of your injuries, yes?" Emma nods her head. "Okay then. You have two bruised ribs, a clean break in your left fibula, a small first-degree burn on your right hand, and minor cuts and bruises over then rest of your body. Overall nothing to serious to worry about injury wise."

"That means that there's something else I should worry about?" Emma asks quizzically.

Dr. Whale and Henry glance at each other before Henry slowly speaks. "Your foster parents have been taken into custody."

Emma took a moment to process the information. "So I have to go back into the system? Again?" she asked.

"I've spoken with your social worker and she said that you will be moved to another predetermined family once you are out of here." Dr. Whale explains.

"Okay. Thank you." Emma says while Dr. Whale smiles then leaves the room, leaving her and Henry alone.

Henry scratches the back of his neck while opening and closing his mouth multiple times, presumably trying to find the right words to say. It is a moment before he speaks. "I have some good news for you."

"Oh yeah? What is it?" Emma asks.

A sly grin breaks out on his face. "I know the family that you will be moving in with quite well."

Emma is curious as to how he knows about it. "How?" she simply asks.

"Because it's my family." He says, a wide grin stretching across his face.

 **I'm sorry it's so short. I'm really busy with school right now as every big project seems to be due at the same time so I'm cramped with trying to complete them all on time plus write this. Over the next two months or so I won't be able to update regularly and I apologize for that now. Like I said everything is getting busy now with the end of the school year approaching. To make up for it I'm going to try to make the next chapter longer! Love you guys and don't forget to follow and leave a review! :)**


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